How to build this weapon?

[gozer87]

Hi all,

I'm designing a sword'n'sorcery/pulp sci-fi campaign, like Barsoom meets Flash Gordon the movie, meets RIFTS Atlantis. Anyhow everything that is out of the norm, such as skyships, attack sleds, blaster weapons, automatons etc are powered by different types of "tke" (telekinectic energy) crystals which when brought into close proximity to a certain metallic elements will give off energy until depleted.

 

I'm stuck on how to design the blasters in the rules. What I want is a blaster that takes a few seconds to charge up before shooting, then must recharge after each shot, taking as much time as a Pike and Shot era musket or pistol would. Should it be an activation time for the blast? To represent the eventual drain of the crystal, I was thinking of an END reserve that must REC by being hooked into a recharge device powered by solar, hydro, wind, a big tke crystal or the user themselves. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Michael

[Snarf]

Re: How to build this weapon?

 

I'd use an endurance reserve for that type of thing too, but Extra Time would be a lot less bookeeping and get pretty much the same effect.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: How to build this weapon?

 

I'd go with Extra Time. Sounds like it requires an Exra Phase before you can fire it again. However, it's an attack power, so the normal rule would be no other actions while you recharge it. That's not what I picture from your definition. I'm seeing "Fire it, punch the guard while it recharges, the n fire it again."

 

I'd cut the limitation in half, the same as for "Once it's charged, it can be used repreatedly".

 

On the limited shots, is it going to be a beam effect? If not, I'd scrap the END Battery and go with Charges. It needs the recharger to recover charges, likely with the -0 restriction (more if time is lengthy) that it can recover any time, but each charge added takes a period of time, and it won't cost personal END.

[The_Saint]

Re: How to build this weapon?

 

Ever read the Deathstalker Series?There they use blasters you want.Instead of charging before shooting,they have to recharge after shooting-much the same way as if you would reload Front-loading Pistol in terms of time.Furthermore,they can only be used a few times,before the Energy Crystal has to be replaced,which results in a deadly but unreliable one-shot blaster.That is the reason,why most Fighters in the Deathstalker Universe use Melee-Weapons.I would build such a weapon with charges and a limitation,only once every minute.

[Markdoc]

Re: How to build this weapon?

 

I'd build it as 1 charge,recoverable, with burnout.

 

To recover a charge, the crystal needs to "power up" for a specified period of time (say, 1 turn. You get to decide, since it's up to the GM what constitutes "recovery"). That allows you to fire your one blast, forget the pistol or use it as a club for the next 10 seconds then it's ready to go again.

 

The burnout represents the fact that you are going to run out of juice at some point at which point the crystal needs to be recharged (agin since the GM sets the conditions for repairing burnout, you can set it to whatever suits your chosen milieu. It also means just as in pulp science fiction you can't look at an LED and think "OK, 64 shots remaining". You only know roughly how good your crystal is.

 

Use continuing charges for flight, force fields, etc - one charge keeps you aloft for X turns (or hours or whatever).

 

Simple, consistent and minimal book keeping (I like this last part)

 

cheers, Mark

[dugfromthearth]

Re: How to build this weapon?

 

On first thought I'd build it with charges and clips of 1 charge each.

 

A clip requires 1 phase to change the clip after a shot.

 

But if you don't want the player to have to manually recharge it, just have it auto-recharge, I would hack a special recharge rule: do it as clips but instead of taking a 1 phase action it takes 1 turn but no action.

[gozer87]

Re: How to build this weapon?

 

Thanks all!

The setting is partially inspired by the Deathstalker series, along with the other stuff I mentioned above.

Cheers,

Michael

[austenandrews]

Re: How to build this weapon?

 

Holy cow, "1 Recoverable Charge" seems like an awfully big Limitation value for what really amounts to "takes 1 Phase to recharge." I'd go with Extra Time and waive any restrictions based on the fact that it's an attack power (do the rules really restrict other actions for an attack power with Extra Time? if so, yuck).

 

For the crystal running out, I'd probably take Charges for ease of play.

 

-AA

[Markdoc]

Re: How to build this weapon?

 

>>>Holy cow, "1 Recoverable Charge" seems like an awfully big Limitation value for what really amounts to "takes 1 Phase to recharge."<<<

 

I'd agree - although I suggested 1 turn to recover, rather than 1 phase. The GM could make it longer, if he wanted. Still, I'd rather go this route than changes the rules on extra time. YMMV.

 

>>>I'd go with Extra Time and waive any restrictions based on the fact that it's an attack power (do the rules really restrict other actions for an attack power with Extra Time? if so, yuck).<<<

 

The rules restrict further actions for ANY power with extra time. You can't turn on your force field with extra time and then while it's "powering up" run over to the bad guy and slug him one: that means you have chosen to do something else instead of powering up.

 

cheers, Mark

[The_Saint]

Re: How to build this weapon?

 

Falls Du Deine Welt inkl. Waffen fertig hast,kannst ja mal posten.Bin echt neugierig. Ansonsten schöne Grüsse aus dem hohen Norden.